Did you get the 0% deal you applied for?

MSE_Helen_S

Hi!



If you've recently applied for a balance transfer, did you get the deal you went for, or did you get a lower number of 0% months, or even recommended to take out a different card with the provider?


Please report your experiences here - what was the deal you went for? Which lender was it? And what deal did you end up with?


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Thanks, folks.

shortcrust

Last weekend I applied for a Barclaycard 0% 28 months balance transfer - accepted with a limit four times the balance I want to transfer. I was also accepted for a Tesco 18 months 0% purchase card with a £1,900 limit. More would have been nice!:)

jonesMUFCforever

I have always been accepted for the card I have applied - certainly in last 10 years.

tinkerbell28

I applied for TESCO 18 month 0% purchases and was accepted instantly. Been running 5 months or so...no issues.

PDF

Halifax all in one - 15 months 0% with a 0.8 % fee. (3 % payable then 2.2% refund)

Opened, balance transferred and 2.2% refunded all within 3 days, very happy with the service.

Simstar84

I recently got the 28 month MBNA card at 0%. Transfer was flawless. got usual fee for transfers but all in all good. Also applied for Nationwide credit card with 0% on purchases for 15 months. MBNA can only do 3 months.

Currently paying off MBNA card nicely!

Coveredinbees!!!!

I just got an MS card 0% for 15 months £5500 limit well happy didn't expect that big a limit.

angelsmomma

I was refused the long 0% on the fluid card advertised on here with low fee but offered 12 month with a 4% fee so didn't bother.

Then I applied for and got the Bank of Scotland £4200 limit 0% 24 months, 50% refund of fee after 1 month. Then a few weeks after the MBNA £5200 limit 0% for 29 months. Very quick in both cases but had to phone b of S to do the transfer as it wouldn't go through online.

Mamamoose

I applied for the Barclaycard 29 months 0% deal and was approved immediately, with an £8400 limit. Have done the transfer from my MBNA card (which had an expired 0% deal and had been at 20% interest for the past 6 months! Lesson learned here - check your accounts regularly!) which has gone through fine.

IamwhoIam_3

Hi,
We applied to MBNA for £5000 to clear our overdraft. It was advertised at 29 months 0% and the checker said we were 90% likely to be approved. However when we applied we were advised we could only have the deal for 19 months and were approved for £4800.

What I didn't like was that we had to apply for the card with no idea of the limit we would be given. If we had not got the balance we wanted then we had no way of saying no to the card except by cancelling the agreement.

Amer_A.K.

I have to say that I'm very thankful to MSE team and Martin Lewis as I've been 'tarting' with credit cards for more than 3 years now, since I signed up to MSE which make me save loads of money.
Our Circle of Tarting:
First of all, my wife and I relied on 0% Purchases Credit Cards to pay for all of our bills (with no extra charges) including Council Tax, we've had: (Halifax 10,13, &15m, Tesco 13 & 16 m, Nationwide 18m 2 cards, NatWest 13m, Barclaycard 13m 2 cards) to save the cash and managed to buy our first house in 2011 with a respectful 25% deposit which allowed us to have a good mortgage rate for FTB.
Secondly, every time when the 0% deal is about to expire we pay in full or transfer it to a 0% BT CC, (I choose them to pay the cheaper fee per 12 month and not the longest, eg. 1.5% fee for 24 month is 0.75% a year much cheaper than 2.9% for 31 month which equal to 1.12% a year) this allow us not only to build up credit history for both of us with a credit limit increasing every year, but also we used the spare cash to overpay for our mortgage and save money on the interest and opened Cash ISAs and get tax free interest (Halifax 5yr ISA 4.5% March 2012 £5300 and April 2012 £5600).

My first credit card was with Halifax, 10 month 0% on purchases with a limit of only £1500, my wife's first one was with Barclaycard for only £900 but we decided to take it to build up her credit history as she never had any credit card at the time, my last one was last summer with Lloyds Platinum 24 month 0% for 1.5% BT fee (after refund) with a respectful 10k limit, and my wife's last one was Barclaycard Platinum 0% for 25 month on BT with 1.5% fee (also after refund) in January 2014 from MoneySuperMarket.com she got unexpected credit limit of over 12k.
Thirdly, for most, we used MoneyExpert.com for £25 cashback for each card per person per year, which were good bonuses, clear profits for purchases cards and reduce the BT fee on the BT cards.

After all, we're so glad we followed Martin's advices: 'transfer the balance or pay in full', 'Tarting', 'pay by DD', 'never miss a payment' etc. to avoid paying any interests and, I believe, because of this website we could buy our first house with 25% deposit sooner in May 2011, (today, in less than 3 years, we have more equity than the mortgage provider), and because of this website, we could save loads of money for using credit cards 0% offers to overpay and save interests on our mortgage as well as making some money on interest from Cash ISAs.

Tarting is a brilliant idea to use the banks money to save or make money, but you need to know how to play this game, thank you very much. :beer:
Our next target credit card is Tesco ClubCard or Santander, both offer 18 month 0% on purchases at the moment, but we're just waiting to reach the current credit limit.

I decided to write all this in details because I really hope that more people can do what we did and use this 'Tarting' technique to reduce their high interest depts. or to be able to save a deposit to buy their dream home, it does need hard work, plan B with employment, doing the extra mile, and work some overtime, but it pays off at the end and it won't take as long as you think.